


Strings That Grow

by toesohnoes



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-20
Updated: 2007-07-20
Packaged: 2017-10-30 05:44:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/328375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toesohnoes/pseuds/toesohnoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eden learns the price of power.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strings That Grow

When Eden was twelve, the strings started to grow – winding, invisible, impossible, but strong. They sprang from her fingers and spread through the world in a fiery rush, seeking and taming anyone they met. Magic strings, miracle strings, special strings.

"It's pretty cool," she said to the red-haired boy that sat on the grass beside her. The hour hand on her chunky black watch had crept slowly past her old curfew, but her step-mother wouldn't care. "I can make people do whatever I want."

Her best friend stared at her, with his eyebrow raised and his chubby face unbelieving. Freckles dominated his skin. "No way. You make so much stuff up," he complained – and maybe that was true. Maybe she spun stories and lived in a world of her own. Maybe she spread lies as thick as peanut butter.

Not this time. "It's true!" she promised as she absent-mindedly plucked blades of grass up from the ground to form a small, dead pile.

"Prove it," Billy challenged her.

Eden's gaze swept their surroundings. In the centre of a run-down park there were little strings to pull, no people in sight. A play-park was abandoned, with menacing shadows lurking under the slide and a set of swings that creaked with every movement. "Fine," she said confidently as she got to her feet. "Billy, go to the swings."

He smirked as he looked up at her, still planted on the ground. "No way, you're-" She tugged on the invisible strings and he got up, stepped forwards, and walked right over like a good little puppet. He didn't even make a sound until he was there, until he was standing next to the swings that squealed in warning with every rock of the wind.

The order over with for now, he looked around. Eden just stared at him, pride flowering in her chest. The power still wound its way through her, taking hold and blossoming. Billy blinked and laughed nervously. "I did that on purpose," he said. "Just to humour you, y'know?"

Her eyes narrowed and her arms folded over her chest. "Stand on the swings," she ordered.

He did as he was told instantly this time, no time delay. She had a stronger hold on the reins this time. When he was balanced precariously, looking at her with his pale blue eyes starting to show alarm, she just scowled up at him. "Swing hard. And fast. And high. And don't stop."

The joints creaked and whined as he started to do exactly that, cutting through the air at supernatural speed. She only watched for a few seconds before she turned away and left him to it. He'd believe her now. He had to. She left the park without another word.

Once he'd come out of hospital with a broken leg and broken arm, Billy wouldn't even look at her any more. There was no cure that her power could offer her for that.

*

"Will you just leave me alone?" she asked – she didn't bother ordering. With the Haitian standing by the doorway as an ever-present guard dog, there was no point in even trying. Her strings had been clipped. "I'm not feeling up to any of this right now."

Chandra was dead. She'd been trying to accept that ever since she'd heard the news: Chandra was _dead_. She sniffed and prayed to any god that might've been listening to just make Noah leave her apartment.

"I'm sorry, Eden," he said. He sounded genuine enough. He always did: Noah was one of the few nice guys in the organisation. "There's something else I have to ask you to do. Something new."

She closed her eyes and told herself she could do this. She could. Just another day, another task, another mission. She could do this – and she needed to. They were doing good. For the first time in her life, she'd actually been using her powers to do something _good_.

Not that it mattered. Not that it had helped Chandra. Not that-

She cut her thoughts off before she ended up bursting into tears in front of her two colleagues. She had to be professional about this, didn't she? "Okay," she whispered. "What is it?"

He placed a file in front of her.

_Mohinder Suresh_.

*

He was leaving and it was breaking her heart.

Piece by piece, crack by crack, she could feel it shattering. It was like watching her mother drop to the floor or like watching her home burn down behind her. Her life was being destroyed by this one man, by this one annoying and impulsive and smart and beautiful man.

She could make him stay. Tug his strings, adjust his thoughts, fix his motives, all with a couple of well-chosen orders. It would be so easy that it was laughable. She could have him there all the time: there to come home to and there to work with and there to comfort her when the job got to be too much. They could have their well-deserved happily ever after.

The words wouldn't come, though. The orders were blocked in her throat and her damn conscience held her back. She smiled sadly at him instead and stepped forwards – their lips joined and she closed her eyes to enjoy it, to enjoy this brief moment they could share. Mohinder's mouth was soft and surprised as she left her mark on him.

In that one instant, she handed his strings back over to him. He could determine his own destiny, while she did nothing more but pray that it led him back to her.

She pulled back and hoped her breath didn't tremble. "Like I said ... see you later," she said. The bemused shock on his face almost made this temporary goodbye worth it.

When the door closed, she took a deep breath. With or without Mohinder, she had a job to do and a serial killer to catch. Mohinder would be back – in the meantime, she had to move on, no strings attached.  



End file.
